Poured from a bottle into an Orval chalice. The pour is fairly clear and dark reddish-brown in color. The head is rather thin and the carbonation rather low for the style. The nose has some fruity esters and nice sweet malty notes. The primary fruits are dark plums and cherries. There is also a nice bready, yeasty note. Like a puff pastry.

The beer has a nice, full body and a firm, slightly creamy mouthfeel. There are lots of flavors of sweet malt, cake, and dark fruit on the front of the tongue. At mid-palate, some raisin-like notes take over and the flavors start to become a bit tart towards the back of the mouth, where things dry up a bit on the finish and balance out the early sweetness nicely. No alcohol taste at all.

A classic example of the style that every beer fan should try at least once or twice. It is not overly rich or sweet and has a nice complex blend of flavors.

I have been harassed for years for turning my nose to dubbels. Don't ask me why. They just didn't sit right with me. Always seemed like the shitty little brother to my lovely quads. Not the juicy quads on these foreign girls that raid my nest, but the herculian brew we all raise a glass to. Those spectacular beverages that push the double digit mark on the ABV scale. For the second time in my life, I have been proven wrong. Avoiding dubbels meant that I was avoiding Westmalle Dubbel, and this beer happens to be one of the most finely tuned brews on God's green earth. The perfect balance. Exceptional taste and mouthfeel. Reminds me of the breasts I had in my mouth this past weekend. This, in turn, reminded me of the third time in my life I had been proven wrong. Right after discovering this special beer, I was approached my a loose-lipped Dutch girl at a hostel I was spending the night in. During conversation, breast size was brought up, and my friend guessed that she was a b-cup. I laughed at the notion that she was a b, since that chest was going nowhere but inward, so leaned closer for further inspection. With the Westmalle Dubbel in one hand, I used my free mitt to size up the specimen. He was right, b-cup. I then finished my Westmalle, and convinced her to fetch more beers. I then went to sleep. She could not trick me into sleeping with her. Since that night, I have realized that when guessing bra size, the b-cup is the go-to cup size. That guess will win you more battles than you lose. There is also such a go-to when it comes to world class beers. This is Westmalle Dubbel. It may not be the people's champ, like the over-hyped c-cup, but it is always the go-to when you need something to bring home. I am now a Dubbel man, and Westmalle is my girl.

PRESENTATION: 750mL corked and caged bottle, brown glass. Price: $10.99. Bottled 09/30/10, best by 09/30/12, drank on 10/02/12. The plastic cork is hard as hell to get out of the bottle; I fumbled with it for about 5 minutes, probably bruising my thumbs in the process, and I was sober. Bought from the local package store that hosts beer tastings all the time, and has a massive selection of craft beers and imports. Thank you to Blacklick Wine and Spirits in Columbus, OH.

APPEARANCE: pours nicely in to a large lowball glass (my own choice - I think these styles shine in the straight-sided, wide glasses - dark brown (not black, nowhere near a stout or porter) with strong red ruby highlights when held to the light. Looks like a cola, from what I remember. I don't touch cola, nor anything caffeinated. I stick with alcohol. Darkness hides sediment well.

With a gentle pour, there is little head, but what head is there sticks around. With a vigorous pour, there is a one-and-one-half finger to two-finger head, which dissipates rather quickly while leaving the same ring of head as a gentle pour. It laces the glass decently, but not as well as the Westmalle Tripel I had the other day.

It is quite cloudy from yeast, with a bit of yeast particles congregating or flocculating at the bottom of the glass after the liquid is downed.

SMELL: very nice aroma, a bit boozy, with strong hints - more like already-solved puzzles - of berries, especially blackberry and currant (and red gooseberry and raisin and raspberry[?]). Esters. Like booze-soaked raisins and currants. Almost like a very watered down Sailor Jerry's without the cherry - and I love me some o' the ol' Sailor. It's an excellent smell for the style, but is a little alcoholic, and a bit low on the caramel-like smells that I feel should emanate therefrom; it has no smell of spice which emanates from Rocheforts, and which I have grown to dislike. This smell is almost a five.

MOUTHFEEL: high carbonation for the style, I think (although I've had few Dubbels, and "dark beer" generally is my preference, I've had many Tripels, Belgian Strong Dark and Pale Ales, and Quads), with a somewhat dry astringency on the palate, starting off bubbly, with notes of brut champagne - both in the carbonation and in the flavor itself. It is, according to my preference, a most smooth libation. The carbonation is excellent, but the body is a bit weak in comparison to it; this is a little thinner than I would prefer - although I may be reading too much stout in to this Dubbel - so I subtract 0.5 points.

TASTE: not so much like the aroma. There is no taste of alcohol in this beer - not like the aroma and the 7% ABV would suggest - just an excellent, fruity, brut-champagne-like flavor - that's right, it's fruity without being sweet. Although there seems to be, on some sips, a hint of sweetness, I can't pin it down. There are notable components of yeast, although this yeast lends no "bready" flavor to the beer, contra most other reviewers: I can taste the bread in Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout: I can not taste the bread in this. It is on the rich side for the thin mouthfeel. There is a pronounced, while subtle, grape character: if I did not know otherwise, I would Christen this a "barleywine", as it has more characteristics in common with certain grape-based drinks than any exemplar of that style which hath ever crossed my palate. Not exceedingly complex, but not simple; it is quite drinkable, but not a session beer, although by this point in my review, 5/6 of the way through a 750mL bottle, I'm quite tipsy.

OVERALL, 5/5: I really don't see how this could be improved, even if it's a little low on body and high on carbonation for my tastes, any permutation altering the body and carbonation that I run through in my mind's palate somehow isn't quite as good. This is one of the best beers in the world, to my palate; St Bernardus Abt 12 is easily the best, this being in second place for Belgians, and the top 5 overall.

As a previous reviewer noted, if this is in your glass, this is a special occasion. Drink it daily! I paid $11 for this bottle; it was worth it. I recommend letting it warm for a little before drinking it; my last half-glass out of the bottle was better than my first, which was served around 45ºF or so, maybe 50ºF.

Final verdict: if you haven't had this ale, buy it: it won't let you down. It is more like champagne in consistency and in flavor than any beer I have had otherwise; I'm not a large fan of champagne (I once bought a bottle of Dom Perignon and Moet et Chandon White Star to see if it would make a difference: it didn't), but this isn't a putdown of the beer: it does what champagne could not.

Poured from a bottle into a Westvleteren tulip. Thick two-finger tan head, dissipates to thin lighter tan head, chunky lacing. dark red/brown color. Looks good to me. Aroma is light on the nose. There is sweet/dark fruit, but also the typical crispness. It's not overwhelming, but the smell is fresh and light. Taste is similar to smell, except less sweetness, more dark fruit. IT does have a "nectar" flavor to it, but again overwhelming. Mouthfeel is fresh and crisp, almost like a champagne, with medium carbonation and relative smoothness. Overall I do really like this beer, perhaps more than Westmalle Triple, but certainly not as much as Rochefort 10 or Westvleteren XII. I would definitely get this again. Cheers.

Bought a couple 330 mL bottles of the venerable Westmalle Dubbel at the Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA on Sunday for the Patriots game. Glad I'm finally getting around to reviewing this beer–it's one of my all-time favorites. I decanted the bottle into my trusty Dogfish Head snifter. Review is from notes.

Appearance (5/5): Westmalle Dubbel's appearance is textbook Belgian Abbey Ale...this is the blueprint: dark chocolate brown brown with deep red highlights, opaque with some yeast particles hanging in suspension, and topped with a luxuriant two-finger head of pillowy, light tan foam. Its head of foam retains exceptionally well and reduces gradually to a 1/8" tall ring of foam. Beautiful.

Smell (5/5): One word: pungent. An incredibly fruity character, reminiscent to booze-soaked raisins or blackberries, rises from the glass. This strong–though not sugary sweet–fruitiness is no doubt imparted by the Westmalle brewery's extraordinary proprietary yeast (it flexes even more in Westmalle's Tripel ale). There's some light booze in the scent, and some woody characteristics as well.

Taste (4.5/5): Westmalle Dubbel is, as one can easily guess from the aroma, a very fruity and rich tasting beer. Some dark bready notes come on in the foretaste before blooming into dark fruit flavors of blackberry, raisin, and ripe plums. Complex and refined. Strongly yeasty, a little woody, and none of the alcohol hinted at in the smell to be found. The taste is rich without over-the-top.

Mouthfeel (4/5): Westmalle Dubbel is smooth and quite drinkable for a dark Belgian Abbey-style ale. It is also quite dry in the finish, something out of the ordinary for a beer of its style and something that I found to be nice (others have found this characteristic a little off-putting; I guess I'm a sucker for dry finishers). I must criticize Westmalle Dubbel's lack of body, however. It should, in my humble opinion, be a little fuller. This is a huge knock on the beer, overall, but a slightly fuller body would certainly give it a better mouthfeel.

Overall (4.5/5): Westmalle Dubbel is one extremely tasty beer. It packs a ton of great yeasty, fruity flavor into a relatively low ABV package (for the style). Despite being a bit flawed, it's one of the classics of the beer world, and it is a special occasion whenever it's in the glass you're holding. Superb!